Six of 12 small cars do well in front crash tests DETROIT (AP) — Two redesigned Honda Civic models were the only small cars to get the top rating in stringent front-end crash tests performed by an insurance industry group. In all, half of the 12 compact and subcompact cars tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety fared poorly, but six performed well. Safety is critical in the fast-growing small-car market, with many buyers downsizing from larger vehicles. The two-door and four-doo...

2 friends of Boston Marathon bomb suspect indicted BOSTON (AP) — Two college friends of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were indicted Thursday for allegedly trying to thwart investigators by throwing away fireworks and other items they found in Tsarnaev’s dorm room the day before his capture. Authorities later discovered the fireworks in a New Bedford landfill, the federal indictment says. Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19 and nationals of Kazakhstan, face charg...

Review: First peek through Google Glass impresses SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google hopes to change the face of technology by persuading people to wear computers on their heads. That’s the inspiration behind Google Glass, a spectacle-like device that contains a hidden computer, a thumbnail-size transparent display screen above the right eye and other digital wizardry. This Internet-connected headgear is set up to let users receive search results, read email, scan maps for directions and engage in v...

Sadness, joy inherent in SC couple’s adoption case COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Years into their attempt to adopt a Cherokee girl, Matt and Melanie Capobianco say they can empathize with any sadness the girl’s biological father might be feeling after being ordered to turn her over to them. In late 2011, the Charleston-area couple was in a lawyer’s office, tearfully handing over Veronica — whom they’d raised since birth — to the father, Dusten Brown, who lives in Nowata in northeastern Oklahoma. “It w...

Ex-teacher charged in Dallas-area attacks; 4 dead DESOTO, Texas (AP) — A former teacher and Dallas Mavericks hip-hop dancer was charged with capital murder Thursday after police said he attacked the homes of his estranged wife and his girlfriend, killing the women and two of their children and wounding four other people. Erbie Lee Bowser, 44, was arrested late Wednesday following the second attack in the Dallas suburb of DeSoto, during which police say he fatally shot his estranged wife Zina ...

Woman’s ’Lego leg’ video a hit, inspires others ST. LOUIS (AP) — As a child, Christina Stephens filled her parents’ basement with Lego castles and pirate ships. When she put her Lego-building skills to work last month making a prosthetic leg out of the children’s toy, she became an Internet sensation. Stephens, 31, lost her left foot in an accident this winter and decided to combine her clinical expertise as an occupational therapist with her own experience of losing a limb to help others d...

Lawyer: Hasan intent on getting death sentence FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — On the first day Maj. Nidal Hasan went on trial in a fight for his life, he claimed responsibility for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood. He posed no questions to most witnesses and rarely spoke. On one of the few times he did talk, it was to get on the record that the alleged murder weapon was his, even though no one had asked. The Army psychiatrist sometimes took notes while acting as his own attorney, but he mos...

Group: Apps not effective tool for teaching babies WASHINGTON (AP) — Smartphones don’t make smart babies, an advocacy group declared Wednesday in a complaint to the government about mobile apps that claim to help babies learn. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, whose allegations against “Baby Einstein” videos eventually led to nationwide consumer refunds, is urging federal regulators to examine the marketing practices of Fisher-Price’s “Laugh & Learn” mobile apps and Open Solutions’...

Cleveland house in kidnap, rape case is demolished CLEVELAND (AP) — With several swipes from the arm of an excavator and applause from spectators, a house where three women were held captive and raped for a decade was demolished Wednesday, reduced to rubble in less than an hour and a half. The demolition had the look of a neighborhood celebration, but some residents have been troubled by guilt for failing to notice tell-tale signs of the women’s imprisonment, like windows boarded up from the i...

More Powerball players seeking big jackpots only DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The allure of capturing the estimated $425 million Powerball jackpot had players in a buying frenzy Wednesday, further confirming a trend that lottery officials say has become the big ticket norm: Fatigued Powerball players, increasingly blase about smaller payouts, often don’t get into the game until the jackpot offers big bucks. Meghan Graham, a convenience store worker from Brookline, Mass., has purchased nearly a do...

As al-Qaida grows, leaders remain a global threat WASHINGTON (AP) — Far from being on the brink of collapse, al-Qaida’s core leadership remains a potent threat — and one that experts say has encouraged the terror network’s spread into more countries today than it was operating in immediately after 9/11. President Barack Obama, who ordered the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has described al-Qaida’s headquarters as “a shadow of its former self” and his spokesman Jay Carney has calle...

Eyebrow waxing and cafe lattes at the drugstore? At some Walgreen stores, there are health clinics staffed by nurse practitioners, cafes that sell barista-prepared coffee and Eyebrow Bars where trained professionals groom unruly facial hair. Oh, and pharmacists fill prescriptions, too. The nation’s major drugstore chains are moving beyond simply doling out drugs and Kleenex. They’re opening more in-store clinics and offering more health care products in part to serve an aging population that...

Father of Pa. shooting suspect: Son gave warnings A man charged with killing three people at a Pennsylvania municipal meeting because of a feud over his junk-strewn property had given plenty of warning that he intended to kill people, his father said Wednesday. Rockne Newell told his father and others that he planned to kill officials in rural Ross Township, saying he had nothing left to lose because he’d already been forced off the land, said the father, Pete Newell. “He said, ‘My life’s ove...

US consumer borrowing rose $13.8 billion in June WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans borrowed more in June to buy cars and attend schools. But they were frugal again with their credit cards, as many remain wary of taking on high-interest debt. Consumers increased their borrowing $13.8 billion in June from May to a seasonally adjusted $2.85 trillion, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its monthly report on consumer credit. That’s the highest level ever. The category that includes credit card debt ...

No bomb found on Philly plane despite threat call PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A bomb threat investigation that prompted a search of a trans-Atlantic flight and questioning of its passengers has turned up nothing suspicious, officials said. US Airways Flight 777 from Shannon, Ireland, landed in an isolated part of Philadelphia International Airport on Wednesday afternoon and was met on the tarmac by fire trucks and federal and local authorities. A telephone threat about a bomb was made about the plane...

Study ties higher blood sugar to dementia risk Higher blood-sugar levels, even those well short of diabetes, seem to raise the risk of developing dementia, a major new study finds. Researchers say it suggests a novel way to try to prevent Alzheimer’s disease — by keeping glucose at a healthy level. Alzheimer’s is by far the most common form of dementia and it’s long been known that diabetes makes it more likely. The new study tracked blood sugar over time in all sorts of people — with and ...

Friend: Suspected Calif abductor had crush on girl LAKESIDE, Calif. (AP) — A man suspected of abducting a 16-year-old girl told her he had a crush on her and would date her if they were the same age, a friend of the girl said Wednesday as police searched for the man who is also wanted in the death of the girl’s mother and possibly her 8-year-old brother. James Lee DiMaggio explained that he didn’t want the girls to think he was weird in an effort to defend himself after noticing they exchanged...

Clients drop $180 for bird poop facials at NYC spa NEW YORK (AP) — Bird poop for beauty? That’s what goes into facials at a luxury spa where the traditional Japanese treatment using imported Asian nightingale excrement mixed with rice bran goes for $180 a pop. About 100 women and men go into the Shizuka New York skin care salon, just off Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, each month to get the treatment, which is promoted as a way to keep the face soft and smooth using an enzyme in the poop to gently e...

Fledgling 3-D printing industry finds home in NYC NEW YORK (AP) — It looks like a bakery. A warm glow emanates from the windows of big, oven-like machines, and a dusting of white powder covers everything. This space in an anonymous building in New York’s Long Island City neighborhood, just across the river from Manhattan, isn’t cooking up breads and pastries, however. It’s a factory, filled with 3-D printers “baking” items by blasting a fine plastic dust with lasers. When a production run is ...